The Woke War on Birdwatching; Canceling John James Audubon

 

The Woke War on Birdwatching

The bed is pushed up against the wall. We are kneeling on the bed and gazing out the window at something called a "front yard." Thanks to my dad's leading men in combat in the Pacific Theater, and the GI Bill, we are able to have this front yard. I wasn't confronting a slag heap, hundreds of feet high, that glowed blue day and night. I wasn't choking on smoke and sulfur. My family has escaped Scranton's coalmines. I have this yard that smells of grass. Better-off New Jerseyans would laugh at the postage-stamp tininess of our pride and joy. But this yard is sports field enough for the three smallest of us to play color tag. It is capacious enough to accommodate my peasant-born mother's love of green and growing things. There is an azalea, a pink rose of Sharon, red roses, bergamot, lavender, and two Norway spruce.

Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist's Guide Out of the Madness: Book Review

 

Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist's Guide out of the Madness
An Irrefutable, Reader-Friendly Resource Jam-Packed with the Help You Need

Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist's Guide out of the Madness by Dr. Miriam Grossman, is the single best resource on trans that I've come across. That's saying a lot, because there are many excellent resources. There are documentaries, podcasts and detransitioner and desister testimonies. You should check them all out. But if you have limited time, or if a friend will read only one book, or even if you've been researching the topic for years, buy Lost in Trans Nation. Read it, give it to friends, and stock libraries with it. Dr. Grossman is a compassionate professional who has counseled gender distressed persons. She's in the trenches, on the front lines. She is not anti-trans. She is anti-trans-extremism, a new movement driven by a destructive political agenda, a movement that has done harm to many people, both those who identify as trans and those who do not. We know of the harm because the victims of trans extremism have spoken out in mainstream and social media. Dr. Grossman offers the solutions we need.

The Woke Sacrifice Children on the Altar of Ideology

 

Photo by Perfect Lazybones Source

How National Public Radio Uses Your Money to Peddle Lies, Hate, and Disease
The Woke Sacrifice Children on the Altar of Ideology

On the Media is an hour-long, weekly radio show produced by WNYC, a New York city National Public Radio affiliate. NPR and WNYC are both taxpayer-funded media. OTM has aired since 1993. It investigates, as its name suggests, media, including video, audio, and social media. OTM is syndicated to over 400 stations. OTM has won Peabody Awards, Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Silver Gavel Award, a Gracie Award, a Mirror Award, and an award from the National Press Club. OTM's hostess is Brooke Gladstone.

On August 11, 2023, On the Media broadcast "How the Times Covers Trans Rights," a forty-minute segment. The host was Micah Loewinger. Loewinger is an award-winning young journalist who focuses on the far right. The segment's online site features a hand-made sign in pale blue, pink, and white, the colors of trans extremism. The sign reads, "TRANS RiGHTS ARE HUMAN RiGHTS" [sic]. Accompanying text reports that "Over the past few years, the country has seen a surge of anti-trans rhetoric and legislation – primarily stoked by the Republican party and conservative pundits." There have been, the text claims, "coded calls for violence."

This broadcast, from award-winning, taxpayer-funded media, disseminates lies about trans extremism. These lies are not victimless, venial sins. These lies are actively damaging the lives of thousands of vulnerable children. These lies have been used to destroy the careers of educators who resist them (example here). These lies have been used to sever the bonds between parent and child. A father has been jailed for resisting these lies. A mother was arrested in front of her children for resisting these lies. Female athletes have lost titles and scholarships. Women imprisoned with men have been raped. The lies disseminated by OTM are implicated in multiple deaths (see here, here, here, here).

Slain Hookers on Gilgo Beach: What Might Have Altered Their Fate?

 Slain Hookers on Gilgo Beach
What Might Have Altered Their Fate?

A bit over ten years ago, WNYC, the New York metro National Public Radio affiliate, broadcast a few spotty reports of a "possible" serial killer, or killers, dumping bodies on Gilgo Beach in Long Island. These reports struck me as weirdly non-committal. It was as if the reporters were reading only every other line of a coherent narrative. A possible serial killer? Multiple human remains were found on and near Gilgo Beach. Five of them were the remains of people known to be young, female prostitutes. Four were wrapped in camouflaged hunter's burlap. Wasn't that enough to reveal the workings of a serial killer?

Barbie, Oppenheimer, The Sound of Freedom: Movie Reviews

 

Let's Go to the Movies

Barbie, Oppenheimer, and The Sound of Freedom

Like millions of other Baby Boomers, I grew up at a time when TV was black-and-white, small, and shared by an entire, large, Baby Boom family. Half of the seven TV stations devoted their airtime to Golden Age Hollywood movies. Gary Cooper was long gone before I developed a crush on him, and World War II's enemies were our allies but, inspired by films, when we played war, we re-fought Anzio and Iwo Jima.

Was it a "simpler time"? Not really; there were riots and assassinations. But Golden Age Hollywood movies were an almost sacred retreat. They were fashioned in accord with the Hays Production Code, influenced by Catholic activists. These films addressed sex, violence, addiction, crime, deviance, and poverty, but they did so with subtlety. Movies let you immerse yourself in big issues without corrupting your heart, mind, or nervous system. Entire families could watch films together. Adults understood the movies one way, and children in another.